In general, a hair transplant procedure is mainly performed in a strip manner in Korea. The hair transplant procedure may include anesthetizing process, a strip cutting process, a suturing process, a follicular unit extracting process, and a hair transplanting process using hair transplant equipment.
The follicular unit extracting process includes strip extraction and follicular unit extraction (FUE).
The strip extraction is a cutting scheme. According to the strip extraction, an operator extracts a strip as a long scalp from the back of the head of a patient, and sews the strip-extracted back of the head. The operator or an assistant separates a follicular unit from the extracted strip by units.
FUE is a non-cutting scheme. According to FUE, an operator directly extracts a follicular unit from the skin using a thin punching machine.
The hair transplanting process may be divided into a hair transplanting method using a manual hair transplanter and a hair transplanting method using pincettes. A slit refers to an opening or aperture.
In particular, in a hair transplanting process, slit may refer to a narrow hole formed in a transplantation region in advance with an exclusive tool such as a needle and a chisel having a width ranging from 0.8 to 1.2 mm before inserting a follicular unit into the transplantation region, or an operation of forming such a narrow hole in advance.
According to a hair transplanting method using pincettes, an operator forms a slit in a transplantation region in advance and pushes a follicular unit into the slit using pincettes, while directly holding the follicular unit.
In the hair transplanting method using a manual hair transplanter, there is no need to form a slit. That is, an operator manually loads a follicular unit into a slit needle of a manual hair transplanter and subsequently directly pierces a transplantation region with the slit needle. As a result, the follicular unit is implanted in the transplantation region. Here, the slit, which is formed on a side of a sharp-pointed hollow needle, refers to a long opening formed in a length direction of the needle. The slit needle refers to a needle for hair implant with a slit.
When the follicular unit is implanted in a transplantation region, the follicular unit is not pressed by pincettes. For this reason, the hair transplanting method using a manual hair transplanter may be a more advanced method than a hair transplanting method using pincettes.
A needle of a related art manual hair transplanter has a slit formed on the side thereof in order to load a follicular unit.
In order to load a follicular unit to a needle for a manual hair transplanter, the related art needle requires a slit.
An operation using a hair transplanter or implanter employs a scheme of loading a collected or separated follicular unit into a needle for implanter one by one and individually implanting the follicular unit in a transplantation region.
On this account, several implanters are required for hair transplantation. Here, for an implanting operation each time, an implanter is required to be replaced, resulting in limitations in an operation rate.
Also, a general practitioner or a surgeon, a nurse, or an assistant performing the surgical procedure have excessive fatigue, and a long surgical procedure makes a patient undergoing the surgical procedure to feel greatly pressed.
If automated hair transplant equipment capable of sequentially changing several needles having follicular units loaded therein is used for hair transplantation, a time for surgical procedure may be shortened and fatigue may be reduced.
In order to shorten a time for a surgical procedure and reduce fatigue, several needles need to be held in a cartridge (for example, a storage device) for hair transplant equipment. Here, when a needle having the same slit as that of existing manual hair transplant equipment is used, a hair member of a follicular unit sticks out from the needle. As a result, hair members may be entangled with each other. Also, the follicular unit may be separated from the needle.
Therefore, a needle used for automated hair transplant equipment is not required to have a slit as possible.
However, a unit for easily and quickly loading or inserting a follicular unit into a slitless needle is yet to exist.